“America: Where do we go from here?”

Walking down the pavement of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, you stop in solemn silence, staring at a small section of names of the fifty-eight thousand engraved into the black gloss memorial designed by Maya Lin. Do these names hold any significance to you? Or are they just meaningless letters carved into stone? To comprehend the lives of each man and woman here is like trying to understand the heavens above us. It is impossible to truly grasp, and this memorial only represents the fallen soldiers from one war out of the many the United States has fought. Each soldier had a life with individual beliefs, families, and passions. Each soldier was an ordinary person who undertook extraordinary ventures. Behind each name is a person. Behind each person is a story. Behind each story is a lesson. These lessons instill love and pride for our beautiful country. These lessons instill bravery and valor for all the hardships and suffering we face. These lessons instill camaraderie and altruism for our brothers and sisters. We learn these lessons from soldiers throughout our nation’s history.